Up
to recent years there was no hope of
recovery for the pain and incapacitation
of Interstitial Cystitis (IC). For those
not familiar with IC it’s almost
exclusively a woman’s disease.
It starts with a bladder infection which
in and of itself is dreadfully painful.
The infection may become “sub clinical” in
other words you think it’s gone
but it has really just been weakened
but is still hanging around. The infection
can travel to the kidneys, it can burrow
deep into the lining of the bladder eating
away at the deep tissues. The low level
infection causes inflammation which itself
creates fibrosis. Inflammation is the
reason for 95% of all pain.

Where
do these bladder infections start,
usually in infancy or early childhood
from wiping in the wrong direction.
Wrong direction? Men may ask this and
even some gals don’t know that
girls and women are supposed to wipe
the back sides from front to back.
Wiping from back to front can bring
bacteria from the anus or the fecal
material being wiped and introduce
it into the urethra (urinary tube)
where the bugs can crawl up into the
bladder and kidneys producing painful
infections. With babies, they have
no way to tell mom and dad that they
have a bladder infection so the infection
usually grows deep and stays getting
better and worse on and off for years.
By the time these infections are found
they usually have dug deeply into the
walls of the bladder creating damage
and scar tissue from the damage.

Another
common way of getting a bladder infection
is lack of hygiene. Any woman who gets
a bladder infection after sexual intercourse
had better take herself and her lover
into the shower before having sex from
now on and make sure both their crotches
and back sides are clean and sparkly.
The pelvic contact and grinding during
intercourse is a perfect way of pushing
bacteria up a woman's urethra. Not that
men can’t get bladder infections
but the bugs have a much longer way to
travel and they usually get flushed out
by the urine before they get to the bladder.
Which brings me to another step in the
prevention of bladder infections, go
take a pee after each bout of intercourse!

But back
to IC. Dr. April Hernandez of Atlanta,
Georgia recommended a natural treatment
plan for an IC patient in her old hometown
of Toronto and then followed the results
that patient had. In an extensive case
history on the project Dr. Hernandez
relates that the patient she followed
began having trouble after the birth
of her second child and had suffered
with IC for the 5 years previous. She
had a catheter inserted after giving
birth in order to be able to urinate
and due to short staffing in the hospital
the urine bag was not changed frequently
and it would often be left in while full
causing the urine to back up into the
bladder. In patients whose bags are frequently
changed bacterial infections are a concern.

At first
the patient thought the pain in her sides
was normal, due to an inexperienced doc
attending her, the signs of a kidney
infection were misdiagnosed as toxic
shock. When another physician checked
for kidney stones the kidney infection
was found. The infection ran the length
of the urinary tract and soon settled
into the bladder and after some time
the doctor diagnosed IC.

The patients
pain was intense and dominated her life
to the point where she and her husband
had not engaged in sexual relations in
over a year, and this had drawn the couple
apart. She also avoided contact with
friends and was becoming reclusive. Her
immune system had been run down by the
lingering infection and seasonal colds
took their toll. Exercise with the pain
she had was out of the question. Dr.
Hernandez, familiar with European studies
on their systemic enzyme blends against
IC, convinced the patient to use the
systemic enzymes which have been noted
in research against the inflammation,
tissue damage and scar tissue of her
IC. .

Within
days of beginning the systemic enzyme
therapy, the patient had a reduction
in her pain. Lessening more and more
as the weeks progressed. The mucous coating
of the urinary bladder became more ‘flexible’,
the layers of mucosa were healing and
the patient was capable of holding a
greater volume of urine. This demonstrated
that the mucosa had healed to the point
of producing the mucous needed to protect
the lining of the organ from the acid
of the urine. The acidic urine could
no longer infiltrate into the underlying
muscle and irritate the sensory nerve
endings (the mechanism of pain in IC).

After
close to two years on systemic enzyme
therapy, Dr. Hernandez reports the patient
is still mostly pain free and fully functional.
Her urinary processes are normal, though
the infection of IC remains. The immune
system has strengthened to the point
where winter colds are no longer a concern
and she credits the systemic enzymes
for saving her marriage.

Interstitial
Cystitis patients are given no hope of
relief by conventional therapy. No hope
to ease the pain, no hope for normal
urinary function, no hope for a normal “everyday” life.
Pain will be their lot until the day
they die, and before that disappointment
will ruin a good bit of their lives.
Systemic enzymes can now provide hope.
With over 5 decades of medical use in
Central Europe and Japan and over 200
peer reviewed studies, the mechanism
of action of the proteolytic enzymes
as therapeutic agents is well understood.
And, this mechanism of action fits well
with the needs to protect and heal tissue,
reduce inflammation and lyse away at
fibrosis as is needed by chronic UTI's
and IC patients.

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